The emotions of war in Romantic Poetry

Csengei, Ildiko

Abstract

In Canto III of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Harold, Byron's restless unsociable hero visits the field of Waterloo. In 1815 this was a sight of carnage: over forty thousand were killed in the battle that brought victory for Britain and Europe. This talk will examine Byron's emotional response to this battle. Emotion is complex and ambivalent here: grief is mixed with joy, disappointment with nostalgia. Through a close analysis of the poem's language I will be arguing that Byron's ambivalent reaction to Waterloo is the reason for the oscillation of conflicting forces in the poem.

Citation

Csengei, I. The emotions of war in Romantic Poetry

• Deposit Date: Apr 19, 2015
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Literature and Emotions, Tea-Time Talks, War, Romantic Poetry
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/372666